The Conquest of Ana’ Galong (30 November 1893) was the storming and capture of the Achehnese fortification of Ana’ Galong by the legioen of Teuku Umar — then operating as Toekoe Djohan Pahalawan, Panglima Prang Besar of the Dutch Government — and the most spectacular early success of the allied-native policy inaugurated by Umar’s subjection of 30 September 1893. Mounted scarcely two months after Umar received his commission, the conquest demonstrated the operational value of the Legioen van T. Djohan and helped persuade the Civiel en Militair Gouverneur, Gen.-Maj. Deykerhoff, to entrust Umar with ever-wider responsibilities — including, on 21 October 1893, the leadership of the affairs of the XXVI Moekims sagi. As described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96, the conquest also marked the limit of Umar’s westward advance: he refused, on grounds of superstition, to push further toward Lamkrak.
Background
In the autumn of 1893 the colonial government was eager to demonstrate that its new policy of arming native auxiliaries was producing results. Umar’s legioen, only weeks old, was thrown against the nearest still-defiant Achehnese strongpoint: the benteng of Ana’ Galong, which stood in the western approaches to the XXVI Moekims and constituted one of the principal Achehnese fortifications beyond the Dutch buitenlinie. Umar had been given leadership of the affairs of the XXVI Moekims on 21 October 1893, and the conquest of Ana’ Galong was to be his first major test as Panglima Prang Besar.
The benteng itself was a substantial earthwork with bamboo-thorn (bamboedoeri) obstructions and the typical Achehnese system of double palisades, designed to slow an assaulting column while the defenders poured fire through loopholes at near-point-blank range. Its capture by native auxiliaries — without Dutch infantry in the assault line — would be a powerful advertisement for the Legioen van T. Djohan.
The Assault
On 30 November 1893 Umar led his legioen of approximately 250 warriors, supported by his forty panglima’s and the three blood-relative commanders authorised by the Government Resolution of 5 September 1893, against the benteng. The assault followed the pattern of Achehnese siege-craft: a short preparatory fire from the legion’s Dutch-supplied rifles, followed by a rush at the defences under cover of the bamboedoeri, and finally hand-to-hand fighting inside the enclosure. The benteng was carried. Kruisheer does not enumerate the casualties on either side but stresses that the victory was clean, decisive, and immediately hailed by the colonial press as a vindication of Deykerhoff’s policy.
In the immediate aftermath Umar did not, however, advance further. The road to Lamkrak lay open; but Umar held back. Kruisheer records that superstition stayed his hand: a prophecy current among the Achehnese foretold that any chief who entered Lamkrak would die there. Whatever the deeper reasons — and Umar’s reluctance to commit his newly raised force to the most dangerous theatre of the war may have weighed equally — the consequence was that Lamkrak remained unsubdued for the next two and a half years. The Lamkrak mukims would only be reduced by the major Dutch punitive expedition of 9–10 June 1896.
Significance
The conquest of Ana’ Galong had three significant consequences. First, it cemented Umar’s reputation as the Government’s most effective native auxiliary and emboldened Deykerhoff to extend his authority across the XXVI Moekims and, later, into the XXII Moekims. Second, by leaving Lamkrak untouched, it allowed the Lamkrak mukims to consolidate as the principal Achehnese redoubt in the western sagi — a position from which they would besiege Senelop and blokhuis Aloer Oe in the spring of 1896. Third, it handed Umar a credential — the storming of a major benteng by his own legioen — that he would later deploy, in his first letter of 30 March 1896, as proof that he had served the Government loyally and at considerable personal cost before his defection. The post at Ana’ Galong would become, by the end of 1895, one of the most exposed Dutch positions on the western buitenlinie, the site of the celebrated patrol of Captain Van Blokland on 7 March 1896.
See Also
- Teuku Umar
- Ana’ Galong
- XXVI Moekims
- Subjection of Teuku Umar (30 September 1893)
- Legioen van T. Djohan
- Panglima Prang Besar
- Lamkrak
- Patrol of Captain Van Blokland (7 March 1896)
- Tuchtiging of Lam-Krak Moekims (9–10 June 1896)
- 1893
- Aceh War
Source
ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, pp. 20, 941.